


salt water

by krystallisert



Category: Free!
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Merman!AU, Reader-Insert, he's a a total overly attached girlfriend tbh, merman!makoto x human!fem!reader, mushy as fuck, semi-obsessive makoto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 17:43:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7541974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krystallisert/pseuds/krystallisert
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He feels the surface calling to him, like a siren's song. Which he finds weird weird, because sirens were creatures of the sea, it really should've been the other way around. But still, he feels it calling, and being the curious being he is, Makoto can't resist. </p><p>“Humans are fickle, Makoto, they have such short lifespans.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	salt water

“ _Why have not we an immortal soul?” asked the little mermaid mournfully; “I would give gladly all the hundreds of years that I have to live, to be a human being only for one day, and to have the hope of knowing the happiness of that glorious world above the stars.”_ __  
H.C Andersen, Den Lille Havfrue  
_____________________  
  
His parents had always told him not to approach the surface, telling ridiculous stories about monsters with legs and a giant orb so hot it could melt your fins of in mere seconds. The monsters were ten times more dangerous than sharks, they'd say, but Makoto knows a shark – and Rin isn't scary _at all_. And besides; Makoto's been swimming around just below the surface before, he'd seen this 'dangerous' orb – it just looked like a beautiful, large pearl, not dangerous in the slightest.  
  
He feels the surface calling to him, like a siren's song. Which he finds weird weird, because sirens were creatures of the sea, it really should've been the other way around. But still, he feels it calling, and being the curious being he is, Makoto can't resist.  
  
You're the first thing he sees upon breaking the surface. His senses are overwhelmed by thousands of new things; the sounds of animals gliding through the sky, the weird woosh of waves against the shore, the sensation of air on his wet skin, but none of it compares to the strange thing staring wide-eyed at him from the shore.  
  
He's enthralled. He's excited.  
  
~ ~  
  
The second time he sees you, he considers approaching you. He longs to touch you, to know what your skin felt like against his own, to hold the fabric of your strange garb between his fingers. He wonders what your voice sounds like, if your language is similar to his.  
  
But Makoto is not a terribly brave boy, so he convinces himself that he's content with watching you from a distance.  
  
~ ~  
  
The merman was never great at keeping secrets, and his illicit adventures on the surface are constantly at the tip of his tongue, threatening to spill out at any time. So after the fifth time Makoto spots you on the shore and watches you for an embarrassingly long time, he does the only thing he can and tells his best friend.  
  
Haru is much older than Makoto, despite everyone always thinking it's the other way around, and he's never cared much for the surface. It seems strange to Makoto that someone who's been alive for so long never got the urge to explore something so different than the dark waters they reside in, but Haru just huffs and rolls his eyes at Mokoto's fascination with the world above the sea.  
  
But Haru's always been a good and reliable listner, so he reigns in his dislike and let's Makoto vent about his new adventures and discoveries. He thinks he's being subtle, that Haru won't notice how the conversation seems to shift back to a certain human girl every time the dark haired male tries to take it somewhere else, but he finds he's gravely mistaken when Haru suddenly makes an uncharacteristically annoyed sound.  
  
“Makoto,” Haru cuts him off mid-sentence, his blue eyes staring intently at him. Their shared friends always talk about how Haru's surprisingly good at reading people, especially Makoto. Haru usually scoffs at this, Makoto usually laughs, but right now he's scared of what the dark haired merman can see in the larger man's face. “are you in love with this human?”  
  
“I – what?” Makoto is stunned by the accusatory tone in his friend's voice. “I haven't even talked to her!” Predictably enough, Haru rolls his eyes.  
“She wouldn't understand you even if you did,” he says, glaring at a school of fish swimming past them with obvious fake interest. Makoto thinks to ask Haru how he knows this, but his train of thought is interrupted when the merman opens his mouth again.  
  
“Humans are fickle, Makoto, they have such short lifespans.”  
  
Makoto, who rarely let's negative emotions get the best of him, feels a sudden influx of anger towards the older male, which is why his next comment comes out a lot harsher than intended.  
“For someone who supposedly hates the surface and humans so much, you sure know a lot about them, Haru.”  
  
The larger male doesn't miss the subtle changes in his best friend's face or the involuntary twitch of his blue tail, and he realizes that maybe he hasn't been as attentive as he should've been. He's about to backtrack and make a half-hearted apology to dispel the sudden tension, but the frown on Haru's ever-apathetic face stops him.  
  
“If you wanted someone to encourage your dumb whims, you should've gone to Nagisa.”  
  
( _it's the start of the longest fight they've ever had_ )  
  
~ ~  
  
Despite Haru's warnings, Makoto returns to the surface every day for the next week in hopes of seeing you again.  
  
As the days pass without even so much of a glimpse of you, Makoto is about to give up. Maybe you didn't find him as interesting as he did you, or maybe you don't actually live nearby. He grows impatient and disappointed and he's about to turn back when you finally show yourself to him again.  
  
Well, you don't really show yourself as much as you scare him half to death when he hears a loud splash from behind him. He whirls around to stare at the shore, cautionary tales of lethal weapons and four-legged beasts fresh in his mind despite him being way too old to believe in such tales anymore. He doesn't see anything but the ripples in the water, and for a moment he thinks it's just a bird that had scared him when it dove down for fish. When no bird emerges, he gets a bit worried and collects all the courage he has to take a look underwater.  
  
And there you are. Staring wide-eyed at his shimmering, green tail, your cheeks puffed up like a blow-fish. He lets out an undignified shriek that seems to scare you more than you scared him, and you bolt up for air. He stares. He's never seen a human so close before, and can't help how utterly fascinating it is to watch your legs move in the water. For a millisecond he thinks to swim away as fast as he can manage, heart hammering painfully in his chest, but when you submerge your head into the water again to give him a lopsided grin, face perfectly framed by your swaying curls, he's as good as captured in a fishing net.  
  
He comes up to the surface again and can't seem to find his voice. His mouth is hanging wide open ( _don't do that dear – a fish will swim right into your mouth, his mother always says whenever he does this_ ) and you're just grinning at him, hair stuck to your face. Then you're talking. He doesn't understand a single word you're saying, but it doesn't matter. You're speaking to him and it's the strangest thing he's ever heard. He's been pining for so long, not really believing he would ever be this close to you ( _he could touch your face if he just reached out his hand, and once the thought enters his brain he has to wrestle against the urge to do so_ ), so it takes a moment to register it when your voice dies out. He re-focuses, blinks, and then you laugh. Did he do something weird? Makoto feels uncomfortable and awkward, but he's oh-so excited at the same time. It feels like something big is happening.  
  
You point at yourself and say a single word. It's not until you point at him, smile still present on your face ( _he wants to know every part of it, commit every dip and dimple to memory_ ), that Makoto gets that you were trying to tell him your name. He blinks a few times, and thankfully you get the hint and repeat it for him.  
“Makoto,” he stutters, mentally berating himself for making it sound like a question. He must look so stupid, he thinks, but you just light up, smile impossibly wide. You repeat it a few times, trying to get the pronunciation right, and he swears his name has never sounded that good.  
  
You thrust out your hand in front of you, and Makoto is relieved to know that at least a handshake is the same on the surface as under the sea. He places his large palm against your smaller one and you squeeze it. All he can think about is how it fits. It fits perfectly.

~ ~  
  
You end up falling into a comfortable rhythm, meeting up a few times a week and just enjoying each other's company. It pleases Makoto that you seem to be just as fascinated with him as he is with you, always talking exitedly and touching the scales of his tail in a way that makes him shiver. Makoto doesn't speak much, self-conscious about his own language that sounds so barbaric to him compared to the fluid and gentle tone of your voice. He doesn't mind much though; he enjoys just listening.  
  
You get excited about the simplest things; learning how to pronounce words in Makoto's language, the shells he brings you from his home – you treat every discovery as a treasure and it warms his heart every time he gets to see a different smile on your face. He might not be able to understand your words, but he does think he can read a lot in the quirks of your lips.  
  
In return, you teach him a few of your own words: “water”, “sky”, “clouds”, “seagull”. His favorite is still your name, though.  
  
~ ~  
  
After over a month of this routine, he does end up going to Nagisa like Haru suggested, not wanting to disclose his recurring trips to the surface to the older male after their argument. He still feels the sting of guilt, but contrary to popular belief Makoto can be quite stubborn. He's not ready to apologize yet, and he doubts Haru would like to hear about Makoto's fondness of a human girl anyways. And Makoto needs someone to talk to.  
  
“How come you aren't talking to Haru about this?” Nagisa asks, making Makoto's tail twitch. No one ever gave the young merman enough credit, he thinks; Nagisa can be quite perceptive when he wants to be. But then, it doesn't take a genius to know that Haru tends to be the one Makoto relies on for the more serious stuff.  
“He's mad at me,” Makoto says with a sigh.  
Nagisa hums, hint of a smile playing with his lips. There's something about the twinkle in the boy's eyes, almost as if Nagisa knows something Makoto doesn't, but that can't be, because Makoto's known Haru a lot longer than the blonde. He can't even entertain the thought of Haru telling something to Nagisa but keeping it from the bigger merman.  
  
“Why are you so into this girl anyway?”  
It's not that he's _into_ you, Makoto defends himself. It's just that you're so different than anyone he's ever met. He finds himself not caring that basically every word out of your mouth sounds like gibberish to him, or that you're literally worlds apart, he just enjoys your company. Even more so, he enjoys who he is in your company. The fact that you look at him as something unique and special, that it doesn't take more than teaching you a word in his tongue to elicit a smile from you; how willing and interested you are in learning about _him_ and _his_ interests. It feels nice to be treated as someone important, he supposes.  
  
Nagisa doesn't say anything until Makoto realizes he's been rambling and stops dead in the middle of a sentence, and even then he just chuckles at the red staining the older merman's cheeks.  
  
~ ~  
  
Makoto has to admit, he's a bit confused when he spots you by the shore that day. In place of your usual garments – flowing, light and always showing a lot of your arms and legs – you're wearing something tight and black that clings your body like a second skin. A moderately large, yellow... thing is laying by your feet, and Makoto's never seen you smile this wide before. You run out into the water to meet him as he approaches the shore, speaking in a quick and excited manner, pointing first to the ocean and then towards the device you left behind you in the sand. He doesn't know what in the world is going on, but his heart leaps at the genuine joy that brightens your face just by him showing up.  
  
It takes a lot of complicated hand gestures and repetition of words, but he does get it at last; with the strange device and suit, you'll be able to go underwater with him. Makoto can't even begin to comprehend the fact that you've done all of this with him in mind, and it takes every inch of self-control in his being not to reach out to touch your face in appreciation ( _makoto is still weary about touching you, not wanting to freak you out. honestly he doesn't know where the boundaries are, and he's uncertain as hell_ ). **  
**  
You tap the back of your wrist gently in a gesture that Makoto doesn't understand, and when he cocks his head to the side you furrow your brows. It's easy to see that the language barrier is as frustrating to you as it is to him. You don't always understand his body language, and apparently he doesn't understand yours either.  
  
You seem to ponder for a while, uncertain of how to convey whatever you're trying to tell him. You're mumbling something, but Makoto has come to treat your voice as more of a song in a foreign language than trying to make sense of your words and he wonders lightly how his own voice sounds to you. He hopes you get the same thrilling feeling in your chest as he does.  
  
At last you point towards the strange, heavy-looking cylindrical device you've brought with you. It's got a tube that you put against your mouth ( _he does not have a childish thought of wanting to be the tube himself, no he does not_ ). You drag your finger along the device from top to bottom, and then you put your hand around your neck and squeeze it as if trying to choke yourself. He thinks he gets it, and while the throughts of you suddenly gasping for breath in the deep ocean makes him terrified ( _he always forgets how fragile you are, and that the place he calls home would kill you without even trying_ ), he nods slowly.  
  
It's regrettable that you're wearing the black skin that covers most of your body, and that the mask on your face makes it almost impossible to see your eyes or mouth ( _he just knows that you're wearing that smile he likes, he can practically feel the twinkle in your eyes resonating through his body_ ), but as Makoto watches his human glide through the water almost effortlessly, he realizes that had you been a mermaid, he'd have married you on the spot.  
  
It's a thought that saddens him as much as it warms him.  
  
Haru's question echoes in his head ( _makoto, are you in love with this human?_ ).  
  
He grabs your hand and pushes aside the forlorn look on Haru's face for a few more hours.  
  
~ ~  
  
When you're both laying in the sand hours later and you're talking animatedly about something he doesn't understand, Makoto can't help the fluttering feeling in the pit of his stomach. He turns to watch you speak, finally able to see your face-splitting smile and warm blush coloring your cheeks.  
  
He's feeling bold and invigorated by today's adventures, and before he has time to think about it a second time and whimp out, he pushes his upper body up from the warm sand and positions himself directly over you. His hands are at either side of your body, the bottom half of his body resting against your own, careful not to crush you under his weight. You stop mid-sentence and stare at him.  
  
The sounds of seagulls are drowned out by the incessant beating of his heart drumming against his ribcage as he leans down, his nose brushing against yours. Here, he pauses, giving you an out. The feel of your breath ghosting over his lips makes his arms weak, he wants nothing more than to cover your mouth with his own and steal away your oxygen.  
  
But he waits, and he swears by Poseidon that you're the one to close the gap. **  
**  
~ ~  
  
If Haru was annoyed at Makoto before, he's positively fuming now. It's not always easy to tell with Haru, but after knowing him for over two decades, Makoto knows the other male's subtle tells.  
  
Makoto knows he should be worried about this, but he's so elated he can't bring himself to care. He should be worried about this, too, because Makoto _always_ cares.  
  
“You didn't stop going to the surface,” Haru confronts him one day. It's not a question, and it's not a statement; it's a straight up accusation. And Makoto _knows_ that Haru is just worried. He doesn't know _why,_ exactly, but he knows the older merman doesn't mean any harm. He tells his friend as much, trying to be diplomatic. He doesn't like fighting with Haru, because it's not as easy as raised voices and maybe a push or two. It's silences and unintentional guilt-tripping, and Makoto doesn't like seeing Haru like that.  
  
But Haru is getting frustrated, and Makoto finds that even worse; it takes a lot to coax any sort of emotional response out of the aloof merman, and logically Makoto knows he must have a good reason for his reactions.  
“You shouldn't get involved,” Haru says, voice a pitch higher than the usual monotone, and though his face doesn't betray any feelings, Makoto knows when his friend is in pain. “she is going to leave you, or die, and it's going to hurt like hell.”  
  
Makoto reacts at the harsh words, Haru's never been one to use vulgar language – and he can tell by the twitch of Haru's tail, and the swift and abrupt exit that follows that Haru has said more than he meant to.  
  
~ ~  
  
Haru doesn't talk to Makoto again after that, and Makoto finds he can use this an excuse for spending even more time lurking around the surface in hopes of seeing you again. It's hard to schedule dates when you don't speak the same language, but Makoto doesn't mind. On the days you don't show up, he spends his time taking in the surface in all its glory and spying on the occational human that stumbles upon the shore.  
  
On the days you do show up, you spend your time together with comfortable silences and lazy kisses. You show up with the yellow device and black skin a few times; those are his favorite days.  
  
He's content. He's happy.  
  
~ ~  
  
He keeps ignoring Haru's disapproving glares ( _the older merman is_ ** _still_** _giving him the silent treatment_ ), but Makoto does miss his best friend. It's been three months since their argument, and at this point the brunet doesn't know what to say to the other male. He's got the feeling Haru's not actually mad at him, it just seems like he really doesn't approve of Makoto's more and more frequent visits to the surface. And Makoto really can't bring himself to choose between you and Haru, so he refrains from making any choice at all. Haru'll just have to get over it, he thinks, pretending the thought doesn't leave a nasty taste in his mouth.  
  
It's around this time you start acting strange as well. It had been subtle at first – you'd stay at the shore shorter than usual, the silences seemed to stretch out as if you didn't have anything to say – but after a while Makoto can't simply ignore it anymore. Because of the language barrier, he can't just straight up ask you what's going on, so he does the next best thing to cheer you up and brings you a single pearl necklace. He feels absolutely ridicoulus as he puts it around your neck; he's never actually seen you with an accessory at all, and pearls do seem a bit flashy, but he spent a long time looking for the pearl, and he kind of wants you to wear something of his. Belatedly he thinks a seashell bracelet would've been better, but it doesn't matter; the stunned expression on your face makes the hours of searching and embarrassement worth it.  
  
But then you seem to go through a lot of emotions in rapid succession – first you're smiling, then you laugh before abruptly starting to cry. You hide your face in your hands, and Makoto doesn't know what the hell to do – he's never seen you cry before – or what he did wrong. He tentatively reaches out to touch your shoulder, and ends up with your arms wound tightly around his neck. You're muttering something into the crook of his neck, and the merman knows he should stay focused, but the feel of your lips against the sensitive spot makes him squirm. His own arms encircle your waist, and he holds you as close as he possibly can without hurting you.  
  
Eventually, you pull your head back to look at him, eyes still wet with tears, and move your hands to gently caress his face. You trace your thumbs along his jawline, drag them across his eyebrows, cheekbones, lips. When you lean in to pepper his face with kisses, Makoto feels like there's an entire school of fish swimming around in his body, and he can't resist capturing your lips with his own.  
  
His heart feels heavy when he watches you leave that evening.  
  
~ ~  
  
In truth, Makoto has been hoping whatever was making you act strangely around him would pass on its own, but as time progresses and it only gets more and more prevalent, he starts to feel helpless. He just doesn't know how to help you. He can't even express his worry or ask you what's wrong. His small gestures and gifts seems so shallow and useless and you're too restless to let yourself be comforted by lingering touches and embraces.  
  
There's no actual label to what kind of relationship the two of you share, and Makoto feels the divide now more than ever. It's unfair, he thinks, that he was allowed to find you, to get you into his life, and still not be able to fully have you. It's so unfair, so painful, that he almost wishes he'd just listened to his parents, to Haru, and left you alone before you (literally) jumped into his life.  
  
He thinks of the legend about the mermaid princess who fell in love with a human prince.  
That story didn't have a happy ending.  
  
~ ~  
  
Asking Rei – who's frankly more Nagisa's friend than Makoto's – about humans, is admittedly mostly a last ditch effort. His human's (when did he start considering you _his_ , he wonders belatedly) recent behavior and elusive attitude is something that scares the merman, and while Rei doesn't seem to concern himself with relationships at all, he does know a lot about a myriad of different topics. At least that's what Nagisa keeps saying.  
  
If Rei's suspicious about Makoto's questions about the surface, he doesn't let on, and Makoto wouldn't be surprised if Nagisa's told him about it already.  
  
“It's not exactly a secret that you're interested in the surface, Makoto, it was just a question of time before you'd come to me!” the merman – the oldest one in their little group of friends, as it were – says with a flourish. Rei has got a lot of useless information, but he does tell Makoto this:  
  
“They're very different from us. We can live for hundreds of years, but the moment we die, we become sea foam and simply cease to exist. The human body can't even sustain itself for a hundred years, but when they die, their souls ascend to the world beyond the stars and lives on forever,” he says with a wistful look on his face. It strikes Makoto as kind of strange that Rei would have even the faintest interest in this, until he hears the blue haired merman sigh.  
  
“It's kind of beautiful, isn't it?”  
  
It really, truly is.  
  
~ ~  
  
Makoto had never given death that much of a thought. It was a natural part of life, and besides, it was so far into the future it didn't seem like a factor to the merman, who hadn't even lived his first century yet. Distantly he was aware that his father was getting close to the age mermen usually started to struggle, and that his best friend would probably perish years and years before him, but it was more an afterthought than anything else.  
  
But while looking at his fragile human girl floating peacefully in the water – so peaceful, it seems, that you don't take notice of him swimming towards you – he can't help the constricting feeling in his chest. How old are you? How long do you have left? Realistically, you must be young, he thinks, because you looks a lot more like him than his parents, but he doesn't know how aging works in the human world. He's terrified that this is the reason you've been so sad lately, he needs more time.  
  
Upon closer inspection, you don't seem peaceful at all – brows furrowed and eyes closed in what looks like deep thoughts. Makoto doesn't like that at all, how you seem like you're in another place when you're supposed to be with him lately. It's not that he's got any sort of ownership of you, he just can't shake this forboding feeling that follows him around when he thinks of you these days. What do you do when you're not in the ocean with him? Who are your friends and family? Do they know about him? He doesn't think so, because Rei had told him that humans treat the merfolk as a myth, and there's so much of the ocean they haven't explored yet. He'd seen it in your eyes when you'd brought the underwater breathing device, how you seemed so impressed and enamoured by everything around you. He remembers the memory fondly, almost forgetting to be upset about your current frown.  
  
He would've easily given up all his centuries to be human, he realizes. What's several hundred years worth if he's just going to disappear from existence after that? Furthermore, what's several hundred years if you're going to leave him for some magical place beyond the clouds while he has to live out the rest of his meaningless life knowing he can never reach you?  
  
He swallows down the premature grief as he reaches your side and pulls you against him. You sqeak before recognizing him, and Makoto pretends he doesn't notice the tint of sadness marring your features, nor the feeble response to his desperate kiss, and when he keeps your head in place, forehead against forehead, he whispers the words over and over again, knowing you won't understand him;  
  
_I love you, I love you, I love you_.  
  
~ ~  
  
He knows something is wrong the moment he sees you. There's a redness to your eyes that makes you look sad and tired, and you don't greet him with the same enthusiasm that he's so used to. More than ever, he hates the barrier between you, he positively aches to be able to hold a conversation with you. He's picked up words and phrases here and there, but nothing substantial enough to figure out what has etched the sad lines onto your face.  
  
Your mouth opens and closes several times, reminding you of a pet fish he used to had when he was a child, and he presses a wet hand against your cheek in what he hopes is a comforting gesture. _I feel like you're leaving me behind_ , he wants to say, though he doesn't know where the words come from. _I don't know what to do without you_. Your frown deepens, and when you put a hand above his own, he notices the ring.  
  
He only recognize the accesory for what it is because he'd heard one of his sisters talk about how romantic it was that humans gave each other rings to claim each other. It had seemed kind of silly and meaningless at the time, and he didn't want to consider how his sister even got that information, but everything seems to fall into place then; your weird mood and diminishing visits.  
  
You must notice his shell-shocked expression and the way he was staring at the ring, because you let your hand drop as if Makoto's just uncovered your deepest secret.  
  
You're talking then, the pitch of your voice uneven and shaky, but it's just background noise. Makoto can't focus, he contemplates just turning and retreat into the sea without a word, but his body is frozen.  
  
Makoto thinks he's never felt the emotion called “jealousy”, but he's sure it feels something like this. With a lot more force than neccessary, he grabs your wrist and pulls you into the shallow water. You let out a surprised gasp and instinctly try to scurry away from him. The realization that you're afraid of him stings like a jellyfish, and his grip around your wrist tighten. He wrestles the silver band off your finger and closes his fist around it. His name comes out in a hiss of your voice, and while it used to thrill him to hear his name on your tongue, now it fills him with dread. He wants to stop, knowing full and well he's acting like a child, but he feels the tug of an unfamiliar pain squeezing his chest and he can't stop. **  
**  
He presses a forceful kiss upon your open mouth. It's all tongue and teeth, desperation and salt water dominating his tastebuds. You don't seem to know how to respond at first, alternating between pushing against his chest and forcing your tongue into his mouth. He drags you further into the shallow water, settling you on his lap, and for an insanity-filled split second he considers coiling his tail around you and pull you into the ocean. He can't stand the thought of not seeing you again, can't bear the image of you doing this with someone else.  
  
He settles for this instead: swallowing up every sound you make, tracing every dip and dive of your body, making a mental map of the lines of your face. And then – and then, he pulls his face away from your and throws the silver ring as far as he can into the ocean.

He regrets this pathetic outburst as soon as he sees the look on your face. He wishes deeply to be able to explain himself, to apologize, but all he can do is watch as you flinch away from his touch, get up and takes five long steps in towards the shore, brushing angry tears away from your face. Your garb is wet and clinging to your body, but he can't even find it in himself to be distracted. There's a look on your face that he's never seen before, and he _feels_ his heart break before you even open your mouth.  
  
“Goodbye, Makoto,” is all you say, and he doesn't need a translator to know what that means. You don't look back at him when you leave the beach, and Makoto curses his stupid tail, his stupid language ( _he curses his very existence_ ), when he can't do anything other than watching you go.  
  
~ ~  
  
It takes hours, and the help of a very reluctant Haru, but he finds the ring. It's sort of beautiful, he supposes, the kind of accessory you'd appreciate. It's nothing flashy, just a simple silver band with a tiny sapphire stone, and while he hates what it means, he loves it by virtue of being so _you_. He would never had been able to give you something like that – he only gave you that stupid necklace. It burns in his palm and in his throat. This must be what drowning feels like, he laments silently, closing his fist around the ring.  
  
~ ~  
  
He returns to the surface every day for what seems like forever.  
  
You never show up at the shore again.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hoo boy, this AU really got away from me. I planned it out to be about 1,500 words, but uh that didn't happen. I ended up having to cut out entire scenes because it just got way out of hand (Rin actually had a tiny plot of his own). I also ended up caring a lot more about the universe than I intended too, so hit me up if a companion piece from the reader's perspective is something anyone'd be interested in, because I'm not opposed to pushing it to the top of my priorities (I have like five pages of notes of what's going on in the reader's life when she's not with Makoto, so it'll probably happen someday regardless). Haru also ended up with a lot more plot than is presented here (bc makoto's being kinda self centered tbh), so that's also something I'd like to write. 
> 
> Also, I wanted to just clarify why I chose for Makoto to act and think the way he does in this fic, because I guess it can come off as sort of OOC. Obviously this is very loosely based on the original little mermaid story (but honestly, the disney-version is like this as well), where the little mermaid falls hopelessly and desperately in love with the prince after seeing him for the first time. She (and in this fic, Makoto) is someone who's been dreaming of the surface forever, idealizing the people who live there and fantasizing about what they would be like. It's understandable that they become instantly attached to someone who basically represents their hopes and dreams, and while I didn't want to go the "I'll become a human"-route, I did want Makoto to come across as very lovesick and borderline-obsessively smitten with the reader insert. To be quite frank, I've been that type of person in relationships before; the one who neglects my friends unless I need to talk about my partner, and who thinks about them all the time in a possibly unhealthy manner, so that's where a lot of it comes from.  
> It's very, uh, disney/fairytale-ish, I guess, and maybe a bit over the top, but that's just the way I wanted to write it. I do see Makoto as someone who could get a little lost in his feelings, so I just cranked it up a few notches - it's not at all the way I'm used to writing characters, so I hope it turned out okay.
> 
> In any case, thanks for reading!


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